What your homepage is and why you might change it

Your homepage is the page that loads when you open a new tab or click the home button in Chrome. By default, Chrome shows a blank page with a search box. You can change this to any website you visit regularly — your email, a news site, a work dashboard, or anything else.

Most people change their homepage to save a click or two each day. If you start your morning by checking Gmail, or you work from a project management tool, setting that as your homepage means it loads automatically instead of you typing the address or finding a bookmark.

The process takes about one minute and involves only the Chrome settings menu. You do not need to install anything or restart your browser.

Key Takeaways

  • Chrome's homepage setting controls what appears when you open a new tab or click the home button, and you can point it to any website you want.
  • The home button does not appear by default in Chrome — you have to turn it on in settings before the homepage setting will do anything.
  • You can set your homepage to a specific URL, Google Search, or a custom page with multiple tiles of your most-used sites.
  • If you share your computer with other people, each person's Chrome profile has its own homepage setting, so changes do not affect them.

Turn on the home button first

Chrome does not show a home button in the toolbar by default, so your homepage setting will not have any visible effect until you enable it. Open Chrome and look at the top left of the window, just below the address bar. If you see a house icon, skip to the next section. If you do not, follow these steps.

Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner of Chrome (the menu button). Select Settings. On the left side, click Appearance. Look for the option that says "Show home button" and toggle it on. The house icon will appear when ready to the left of your address bar.

Set your homepage to a specific website

Once the home button is visible, go back to the Settings menu. Click the three dots, then Settings, then Appearance again. Under "Show home button," you will see a second option: "Open this page." Click the text field next to it and type the full web address of the site you want — for example, gmail.com or www.bbc.com. You do not need to include https:// at the beginning; Chrome will add that automatically.

Press Enter or click outside the field to save. The next time you click the home button or open a new tab, that website will load.

Use Chrome's custom homepage with multiple tiles

If you want quick access to several sites instead of just one, you can set your homepage to show a grid of tiles. In the same Appearance section, under "Open this page," select the option labeled Custom (or Shortcuts, depending on your Chrome version). Chrome will then show you a page with empty tiles when you click the home button.

Click the plus sign on any tile to add a website. Type the name you want to see on the tile and the web address, then click Done. You can add as many tiles as you want, and you can drag them around to reorder them. This setup is useful if you regularly visit five or six different sites — your email, calendar, banking, news, and work tools all in one place.

What happens if you use multiple Chrome profiles

If you have set up more than one Chrome profile on your computer (for example, one for work and one for personal use), each profile has its own homepage setting. Changing the homepage in one profile does not affect the others. This is useful if you share a computer with family members or colleagues — everyone can have their own home button destination without interfering with each other's setup.

To see which profile you are currently using, look at the top right of Chrome, just to the left of the menu button. You will see a circle with your profile initial or picture. Click it to switch between profiles, and each one will remember its own homepage setting.

Troubleshooting: homepage not loading when you expect

If you set a homepage but it does not appear when you click the home button, the most common reason is that you did not turn on the home button itself. Go back to Settings > Appearance and make sure "Show home button" is toggled on (it should be blue or green, not gray).

If the home button is on but a different page loads than the one you set, check that you typed the address correctly in the "Open this page" field. Common mistakes include forgetting to include www or typing a misspelled domain name. You can also test the address by typing it directly into the address bar to confirm it works.

If you are using a work computer or a school computer, your administrator may have locked the homepage setting so you cannot change it. In that case, you will see a message in the Appearance section saying the setting is managed by your organization. You would need to contact your IT department to change it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set a different homepage for new tabs versus the home button?

No. In Chrome, the homepage setting controls both. When you click the home button or open a new tab, the same page loads. If you want different behavior for new tabs, you would need to use a Chrome extension designed for that purpose, though most people find a single homepage sufficient.

What if I want my homepage to be a local file on my computer instead of a website?

You can do this. In the "Open this page" field, type file:/// followed by the full path to the file. For example, file:///C:/Users/YourName/Documents/homepage.html on Windows. This is useful if you have created a custom HTML page with your own links and want it to load as your homepage.

Does changing my homepage affect my search history or bookmarks?

No. Your homepage setting is separate from your search history, bookmarks, and browsing data. Changing it will not delete or alter anything else in Chrome.

Can I set the homepage back to Chrome's default blank page?

Yes. Go to Settings > Appearance, and under "Open this page," select the option for Google Search or Blank page, depending on what you prefer. You can also turn off the home button entirely if you do not want it visible.